Tier 3 and 4 will initially be made up of the remainder of the FCS schools. Rather than dividing the schools into two tiers to start with, this division will occur over several seasons as lower-performing schools will be relegated to the fourth tier.
The groups are based on existing conferences placed in groups of roughly equal size. With 118 schools, 8 groups will average 14.75 teams. Our groups range in size from 12 to 19.
Northwestern Group
Code:
Sacramento State 60.67
South Dakota 59.32
North Dakota 59.02
UC Davis 53.95
Portland State 49.68
Northern Arizona 46.46
Idaho 45.84
Western Illinois 44.97
Idaho State 39.02
Northern Colorado 38.86
Cal Poly-SLO 34.51
San Diego 32.68
A total of 12 teams: Big Sky(8), Summit(3), Pioneer(1). The Big Sky had 4 schools (Eastern Washington, Montana, Montana State, and Weber State) placed in the second tier, as did the MVFC (Illinois State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, and Northern Iowa). To replace these, the remaining Summit League members along with San Diego were placed in the group. In general the Pioneer League schools were separated geographically.
Midwest Group
Code:
Missouri State 63.21
Southern Illinois 60.93
Youngstown State 52.67
Tennessee-Martin 51.06
Indiana State 47.25
SE Missouri State 44.65
Murray State 42.40
Tennessee State 36.44
Tennessee Tech 31.32
St. Thomas-Mn. 30.95
Eastern Illinois 30.38
Dayton 29.86
Morehead State 28.10
Valparaiso 26.10
Drake 22.49
Butler 14.16
Lindenwood 00.00
A total of 17 schools (4 MVC/MVFC members; 1 Horizon/MVFC member, 6 OVC members, and 6 midwestern Pioneer League teams).
Southwest Group
Code:
SE Louisiana 57.58
Incarnate Word 57.42
Stephen F. Austin 56.23
Nicholls State 53.49
McNeese State 47.31
Abilene Christian 42.85
Tarleton State 42.79
Southern Utah 36.75
Northwestern State 35.98
Utah Tech 32.23
Lamar 30.13
Houston Baptist 27.26
UTRGV 00.00
TAMU-Commerce 00.00
A total of 14 schools, 7 from the WAC and 7 from the Southland. This could evolve from the current horizontal arrangement to a vertical arrangement, with the better teams in Tier 2, and the weaker teams in Tier 3.
South Central Group
Code:
Florida A&M 46.00
Jackson State 44.98
Alabama A&M 38.48
Alcorn State 37.74
Prairie View A&M 37.30
Southern U. 33.69
Grambling State 31.13
Bethune-Cookman 30.30
Alabama State 29.77
Miss. Valley State 29.40
Texas Southern 28.14
Ark.-Pine Bluff 23.71
The 12-team SWAC forms this group.
Northeast I Group
Code:
SC State 40.84
Sacred Heart 38.93
Duquesne 38.12
Bryant 36.44
Norfolk State 36.10
Saint Francis-Pa. 35.76
NC Central 34.22
Central Connecticut 33.66
Robert Morris 32.84
Merrimack 27.46
Howard 25.56
Delaware State 25.47
Marist 23.83
Morgan State 23.65
LIU Post 21.08
Wagner 16.22
Stonehill 00.00
17 teams, 8 from the NEC, 6 from the MEAC, 2 northeastern Big South (Robert Morris and Bryant), and 1 Pioneer (Marist).
Northeast II Group
Code:
Dartmouth 58.07
Princeton 57.86
Harvard 57.39
Holy Cross 51.40
Yale 49.42
Columbia 44.88
Fordham 39.93
Pennsylvania 38.90
Cornell 34.44
Brown 34.40
Colgate 33.76
Lafayette 32.44
Lehigh 30.46
Georgetown 25.73
Bucknell 19.55
15 schools, 8 from the Ivies, and 7 from the Patriot. I'm assuming that the Ivies would participate in the pyramid. If not they would just be moved into a non-participating section. The SWAC might participate. They would be able to play 12 regular season games and also be bowl-eligible.
Southeast Group
Code:
Kennesaw State 57.47
East Tennessee State 56.53
Chattanooga 54.93
Mercer 52.20
Eastern Kentucky 51.74
Austin Peay 49.89
Furman 49.70
Central Arkansas 48.46
Samford 46.97
VMI 45.21
Western Carolina 43.68
Charleston Southern 43.39
North Alabama 41.76
Campbell 39.05
The Citadel 38.19
Gardner-Webb 38.02
Davidson 34.85
Stetson 15.28
Presbyterian 10.05
10 schools: SoCon 8, ASUN 5, Big South 3 (southeastern Gardner-Webb, Campbell, Charleston Southern), Pioneer 3 (southeastern Davidson, Stetson, Presbyterian).
Atlantic Group
Code:
Monmouth-NJ 52.06
Richmond 51.17
Elon 47.88
William & Mary 47.36
Delaware 47.18
Maine 45.50
Stony Brook 45.32
Rhode Island 44.41
Towson 43.54
NC A&T 41.84
Albany-NY 40.14
Hampton 36.66
12 schools all in the CAA.
